Another Attack on Christianity

Steve Jones is a geneticist and former head of the department of genetics, evolution, and environment at University College London. He is a television presenter and author on the subjects of biology and evolution, and he has a new book out titled The Serpent’s Promise: The Bible Retold as Promise. This book is another atheist attack on Christianity.

Many years ago when I was speaking in the United Kingdom, I had an interesting encounter with Steve Jones. I was interviewed by BBC television on a program that had three other people opposing me, including Jones. At one point in the interview I asked Jones to give the BBC television audience his best evidence for evolution. He then talked about fish, citing a new species of salmon. I then said something like, “But they are still Salmon.”

By the way, Jones has written a book that is supposed to be an update of Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Here is what I wrote about that book and the BBC encounter with Jones back in 2000:

Professor Jones, author of a very popular pro-evolutionary book Almost Like a Whale—the Origin of Species Updated, came across to many viewers as “arrogant.” On the TV debate, when asked by Ken Ham to provide specific evidence for evolution, Professor Jones remarked “salmon speciation.” Ken pointed out that the salmon were still salmon, and would continue to produce only salmon, and that for macro-evolution to occur, new information would need to have been added to a creature’s genetic makeup.

Interestingly, in Professor Jones’ book Almost like a Whale, he said that the best proof of evolution—which is supposed to be progressive and upward—that we can see today is the AIDS virus! (http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2000/03/27/british-tour-aig)

Now, Jones’s book The Serpent’s Promise was reviewed by a writer for the Guardian, a UK newspaper. The review is itself a shocking attack on Christianity. Below are some excerpts:

As the Serpent persuades Eve to pluck the forbidden fruit, the creature says: "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Scientists are no more qualified than anyone else to comment on those two abstractions, but they have gained insights into the physical world rather more dependable than those in the Scriptures. Or, to put it more straightforwardly: most of what is in the Bible is complete tosh . . . Genesis was the first biological textbook, a history of "begetting" with Judaism built on the assumption of a shared descent from Abraham. As if! For a start, Adam and Eve could never have met. A study of the male genealogical tree puts Adam in central Africa around 100,000 years ago. Tracking Eve's birthday in the same way takes us back about 200,000 years. So unless Methuselah was a mere infant ... Oh sod it, what's the point? Let's just riff about x and y chromosomes and Irish giants.

It began with a bang. Not a Word . . . But just take it from me, the Earth wasn't created in six days . . . Methuselah: 969 years old? Who are you kidding? . . . Was there a flood? Probably, but so what? There have been dozens of inundations in the course of the world's history, and whoever wrote this bit of the Bible had probably experienced one. But Noah? I don't think so . . . Leviticus is big on diseases, talking about illness as a punishment from God and the need for cleanliness. More rubbish. . . . Revelations are easily explained both by a genetic desire for belief and magic mushrooms. I once took some psilocybin. Made me feel very odd, I can tell you. Where was I? Ah yes, science is more reliable than the good book. But you knew that anyway.

You can read the entire article—if you want to—on guardian.co.uk, and you can watch Jones promote his new Bible-attacking book on telegraph.co.uk.

More and more, we are seeing atheists focused on attacking the Bible and Christianity. They have no new arguments. These atheists just continue to mock as they spend so much time fighting against someone (i.e., God) they don’t even believe exists. Ultimately they are fighting for a meaningless existence.

Notice, too, how often they concentrate on mocking Genesis. I would suggest that's because they know that it is the foundational book of the Bible—foundational to the gospel and to all Christian doctrine. They also know that if this history is true (and it is), then they are sinners in need of salvation—and this truth is what they’re rebelling against.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken